Michele Kelemen

A former NPR Moscow bureau chief, Michele Kelemen now covers the State Department and Washington's diplomatic corps. Her reports can be heard on all NPR News programs, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

In her latest beat, Kelemen has been traveling with Secretary of State John Kerry and Hillary Clinton before him, tracking the Obama administration's broad foreign policy agenda from Asia to the Middle East. She also followed President Bush's Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell and was part of the NPR team that won the 2007 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of the war in Iraq.

As NPR's Moscow bureau chief, Kelemen chronicled the end of the Yeltsin era and Vladimir Putin's consolidation of power. She recounted the terrible toll of the latest war in Chechnya, while also reporting on a lighter side of Russia, with stories about modern day Russian literature and sports.

Kelemen came to NPR in September 1998, after eight years working for the Voice of America. There, she learned the ropes as a news writer, newscaster and show host.

Michele earned her Bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master's degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Russian and East European Affairs and International Economics.

Parallels

3:21 pm

Tue July 21, 2015

American tourists, like these visitors taking a guided tour in May, still have to provide one of 12 authorized reasons â€” such as visiting family or engaging in humanitarian work â€” for travel to Cuba.

The U.S. and Cuba have restored diplomatic relations and reopened their embassies â€” but it's not yet open season for American tourists hoping to visit the island. The U.S. embargo on travel and business means you still have to have a valid reason to go â€” and that doesn't include sitting on the beach and drinking mojitos.

Parallels

6:44 am

Sat July 18, 2015

An International Atomic Energy Agency inspector cuts a uranium enrichment connection at Iran's Natanz facility, 200 miles south of Tehran, in 2014. This week's nuclear deal gives the IAEA up to 150 inspectors to monitor Iran for compliance.

Parallels

3:42 am

Wed July 8, 2015

A woman and her daughter walk at the Zam Zam camp for internally displaced people in North Darfur, Sudan, in June 2014. The U.S. and other countries have said that Sudan is committing genocide in Darfur, and the United Nations has an ongoing peacekeeping program. But many in the region still live in fear and misery.

When Secretary of State John Kerry goes to Havana to raise a flag over the soon to be reopened embassy this summer, it won't be just an important symbolic moment.

The administration says the U.S. will be able to station more American personnel in Cuba, and that should be a big help in practical terms as more Americans travel to and trade with the Cold War-era foe.

Parallels

3:12 pm

Tue June 16, 2015

Mohammad and Linda Jomaa al-Halabi, along with their five daughters, are among the fewer than 1,000 Syrian refugees who have been resettled in the U.S. They left Syria in August 2012 and arrived last year in Baltimore, where they live now.

Syria's civil war has uprooted millions of people, including 4 million who have fled their homeland. The U.S., a country that has always been a leader in refugee resettlement, has taken in fewer than 1,000 of them.

Now, the United Nations refugee agency is asking the U.S. and other wealthy countries to open their doors to the most vulnerable victims of the conflict that began in 2011.

Parallels

1:59 pm

Tue June 2, 2015

Family members of Americans held or missing in Iran attend a hearing of the Foreign Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. From left: Ali Rezaian, brother of Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian; Nagameh Abedini, wife of Saeed Abedini; Sarah Hekmati, sister of Amir Hekmati; and Daniel Levinson, son of Robert Levinson.

After hearing testimony from four families, U.S. lawmakers passed a resolution calling on Iran to release three jailed Americans and provide information about a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007.

As the June 30 deadline for a nuclear deal with Iran approaches, the families say it's time for the U.S. to push hard on this issue.

Among those who spoke Tuesday before a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee was Daniel Levinson, son of former FBI agent Robert Levinson.